Periodically advancement comes a long that revolutionises how things are done.  Managed services is just such an advancement.

This new IT services delivery model is poised to redefine how small and medium sized businesses consume IT services.  Traditional IT models for the small and medium business (SMB) and small medium enterprise (SME) have traditionally left the business in a position where they were paying relatively significant amounts for what amounts to a poor level of service.

Managed services harnesses the skills and capabilities of Clockwork IT Systems’ technical services team combined with the power of an Internet-enabled technology platform, to allow the SMB/SME to have access to the amount of IT service when and how they need it – in a manner that fits perfectly into the cost structure of the typical small business.

Historically small companies have either paid the (relatively) exorbitant price for an internal IT department that provided ultimately poor service, or rely on a VAR (value added reseller) or systems integrator that had neither the skill, tools or processes to support them.  Neither solution worked very well so many organisations chose to accept the indefinable cost of IT avoidance.

Managed services leverages a new technology advancement that allows our technicians to monitor and manage the IT infrastructure of multiple customers remotely – almost effectively as if they were at the customer location!  Because Clockwork IT Systems is in the business of providing IT services, having the appropriate skills and capability to handle any emergency only makes sense.  Since our partners are leveraging our pool of resources, they in fact have access to security skills, network skills, application and server expertise all for the fraction of the cost of hiring even one of these individuals.   Combined with our remote management infrastructure, it begs the question ‘why would you ever hire an internal IT person?’

Market watchers, such as CRN, Gartner and the Yankee group all agree that managed services is ready to burst upon the market and Clockwork IT Systems is ideally poised to take advantage of this change in market dynamics.  Our long history, significant customer base and stellar reputation as an IT service provider are all key ingredients for our strategy to re-engineer Clockwork IT Systems into the next significant IT services company in the Mid North Coast.

Clockwork IT Systems’ managed services program is built around a suite of service automation tools designed to allow our technicians to remotely manage and monitor the availability, predictive failure metrics, performance and capacity of the IT infrastructure (servers, routers, switches and desktops) within our customers environments.  The technology component changes the dynamic of IT services as it allows us to offer the same level and quality of IT services remotely (from our office) as we could if we were on the customer’s premises.  While this may seem merely interesting, the actual business impacts are in fact astonishing when you consider that in reality every IT infrastructure that includes a network and is attached to the Internet requires security expertise, networking expertise, server expertise and desktop expertise.  Each of these skills is a complete IT discipline and as such there is no single person that possesses all of them.  Historically an organisation either needed to acquire all of those skills (very expensive) or accept the security risks and business impacts from IT failure that resulted from not acquiring those resources.  Now organisations can have access to specialised skills when they need them, in quantities that meet their demand for a fraction of the cost of hiring even a single specialised resource – and their level of service doesn’t suffer at all! 

We have analysed the market (both from our customer database and the Mid North Coast marketplace in general) and divided it into five discrete segments that we are fully capable of addressing immediately:

We have developed a program offering designed to attract those market segments, marketing activities to build awareness and momentum, generate demand and build our managed services business.   We project that within 5 years all other models of IT service delivery for the SMB will fall by the wayside in favour of managed services.  By starting early, building off of a stellar IT service reputation, Clockwork IT Systems is ideally positioned to be the next major force in the Mid North Coast IT services landscape.